Al Galdi: A Bad Start To The Nats Being Better At Fundamentals

Al Galdi of The Morning Blitz breaks down the bad start to the Nats season after a 2-0 loss to the Mets in their opener. You can’t blame Max Scherzer for the loss, he was terrific, allowing two runs in 7 2/3 innings on 12 strikeouts versus just two hits and three walks. Max threw 76 of his 109 pitches for strikes. He just out-dueled by Jacob deGrom, who tossed six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts versus five hits and a walk. Scherzer did give up one run that came on a two-out solo homer to left-center by Robinson Cano in the top of the first. Matt Grace gave up the other run on a two-out opposite-field RBI single by Cano in that top of the eighth.

The Nats offense totaled just five hits and one walk and struck out 14 times. The Nats’ 3-4-5 batters – Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto and Ryan Zimmerman – went a combined 0-for-11 with a walk and three strikeouts. It wasn’t all bad though, Trea Turner had two singles and went 3-for-3 on stolen bases. Then Victor Robles a had a full-count lead-off double to the left-field warning track in the bottom of the third off Jacob deGrom despite having been down in the count, 0-2.

Game 2 of the series will be on Saturday and it’ll be Stephen Strasburg vs. Noah Syndergaard with first pitch at 1:05p.